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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Multi-County Marijuana Cases

FRESNO,
Calif. – Large-scale marijuana growers in Tulare County were sentenced and one
grower in Stanislaus County pleaded guilty today in federal court, United
States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

Sequoia
National Forest Case (1:11-cr-358 AWI)

Jerman
Madrigal, aka Jerman Madrigal Cardenas, 20, of Delano, was sentenced to five
years in federal prison for possessing a loaded .38-caliber revolver to advance
a marijuana growing conspiracy. According to court documents, 16,205 marijuana
plants and more than 850 pounds of processed marijuana was found in the Sentinel
Peak area of Sequoia National Forest in Tulare County. A loaded .223 Bushmaster
assault rifle with two magazines containing 49 rounds of ammunition, a pellet
rifle with a scope, and a .45-caliber handgun were also seized from the
marijuana grow site.

Madrigal
was also ordered to pay $3,686 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service for
the cost of cleaning up the damage caused by the cultivation operation. Native
vegetation was cut to make room for the marijuana plants. Trash and fertilizer
containers were scattered throughout the site, including in a flowing stream.
The case against Madrigal is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Forest
Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement‘s (ICE) Homeland Security
Investigations (HSI), Bureau of Land Management, Southern Tri-County High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), California Department of Justice
Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), California Department of Fish and
Game, and Tulare County Sheriff‘s Office.

Alpaugh
Case (1:12-cr-254 LJO)

Ezidoro
Hurtado-Cerillos, 38, an undocumented alien from Colima, Mexico, was sentenced
to two years in prison, to be followed by four years of supervised release, for
conspiring to grow, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute 250 marijuana
plants on a 40-acre agricultural parcel. Landowner Saul Antonio Morales, 47, is
charged with a drug conspiracy involving more than 4,000 marijuana plants grown
under the guise of being medicinal. Hurtado's sentence follows his guilty plea
in October, at which time he acknowledged that he was to pay Morales with
marijuana or money after his marijuana was harvested. Hurtado's wife, Ernestina
Villareal-Guerrero, 34, of Fresno, and another co-defendant, Eliazar
Castellanos-Gutierrez, 26, of Colima, Mexico, have also entered guilty pleas
and are scheduled for sentencing next year.

Upon
completion of his sentence, Hurtado is subject to deportation to Mexico. This
case stems from Operation Mercury, an initiative targeting large-scale rural
marijuana growers in six counties in the Central Valley of California, and was
investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement‘s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations
(HSI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the
Tulare County Sheriff‘s Office.

Modesto
Case (1:11-cr-339 AWI)

Eudaldo
Garcia-Salas, 57, of Modesto, pleaded guilty to cultivating more than 400
marijuana plants surrounded by corn rows grown on residential property on Grimes
Road in Modesto. The marijuana was grown under the guise of being medicinal.
According to court documents, an assault weapon was found at the grow site and
the electricity for the residence was in Garcia‘s name. Garcia resided at
another location in Modesto, where additional marijuana plants were found. He
is scheduled for sentencing on March 11, 2013 before Senior U.S. District Judge
Anthony W. Ishii. Garcia faces a sentence of five to 40 years in prison and a
fine of up to $5 million. He is also subject to deportation upon completion of
any prison term. This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Stanislaus Drug Enforcement Agency, a
multi-agency narcotics task force in Modesto.

Any
actual sentences, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court
after consideration of any applicable statutory sentencing factors and the
Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

Assistant
United States Attorney Karen Escobar is prosecuting these cases.